Succubus Shadows – Richelle Mead

Succubus Shadows is book number five in the Georgina Kincaid series. Georgina is a succubus, and therefore, a servant of hell. However, she’s not exactly evil – and doesn’t particularly enjoy sleeping with nice guys in order to send their souls to the underworld. Despite having been around a very long time, she retains a great deal of her humanity… including the capacity to fall in love.

Georgina is still in love with her ex-boyfriend, super-duper author Seth Mortensen. Seth is in the process of planning his wedding to one of Georgina’s closest friends, Maddie. And if that wasn’t heart-wrenching enough for the succubus, Maddie wants her to be bridesmaid. As she’s not really given much choice, Georgina is soon roped in to trying on dresses and helping organise the wedding – all the while having to pretend that she’s not still wildly in love with Seth.

Just to throw an additional spanner into the works – a new succubus has arrived on Georgina’s patch, and she’s clearly out to cause trouble. Seducing Seth appears to be top of Simone’s to-do list, and Georgina isn’t happy. Unsure what Simone’s motives are – Georgina keeps a close eye on her rival. But it appears someone is watching Georgina, too, as she keeps getting odd visitations into her thoughts – some kind of magical force which is trying to tempt her away from the “real world.” She has no idea what – or who – the force is, but it can’t be good. Can our favourite succubus work out who is on her side – and who’s trying to stab her in the back, before it’s too late?

For those of you familiar with this series, obviously this book is a must-read. I do think it’s the weakest so far, not helped by a daft ending, but if you want to find out what happens after the previous book, naturally you’ll read this one. For people new to the series, start from the beginning – the other books more than make up for the weaknesses in Succubus Shadows, and you’ll be clamouring to find out what happens next…